Source: The Australian
A SIMPLE vinegar test cut cervical cancer rates among Indian women by nearly a third and could prevent 73,000 deaths worldwide each year, the authors of a large-scale study say.
Wealthy countries have managed to reduce such fatalities by 80 per cent thanks to the widespread use of regular Pap smears that can detect the disease at an early, treatable stage.
But it remains the leading cause of cancer death among women in India and many other developing countries lacking the money, doctors, nurses or laboratories for widespread screening.
The inexpensive vinegar test, which has a comparable accuracy to Pap smears, offers a solution to that problem.
A primary health care worker swabs the woman’s cervix with vinegar, which causes pre-cancerous tumors to turn white. The results are known a minute later when a bright light is used to visually inspect the cervix….read full article